History of Sikhism 8

Punjab under British Raj

Punjab province in 1903

Impact on Punjabi education

Every village in the Punjab, through the Tehsildar (taxman), had an ample supply of the Punjabi qaida (beginners book), which was compulsory for females and thus, almost every Punjabi woman was literate in the sense that she could read and write the lundee form of Gurmukhi.[186]

In the carnage of revenge that followed 1857, the British made it a special effort to search every house of a village and to burn every book.[184] Even in the secular schools of Lahore that used Persian or lundee Gurmukhi as the medium of instruction, books formed the major bonfire than the British troops 'cleansed' the area.

Sikhs in the British military

Under the East India Company and then British colonial rule from 1858 Sikhs were feared and respected for their martial ability. After they played a key role in the suppression of the Indian 'Mutiny' of 1857–58. Sikhs were increasingly incorporated into the Indian army because they were not only seen as 'loyal', but because the British believed that they were a 'martial race' whose religious traditions and popular customs made them skilled fighters.[193]

The Sikhs again were honoured in the Battle of Saragarhi where twenty-one Sikhs of the 4th Battalion (then 36th Sikhs) of the Sikh Regiment of British India, died defending an army post from 10,000 Afghan and Orakzai tribesmen in 1897.

[194]

Singh Sabha

In 1873 and 1879 the First and Second Singh Sabha was founded, the Sikh leaders of the Singh Sabha worked to offer a clear definition of Sikh identity and tried to purify Sikh belief and practice.[195]

Cultural infrastructures and Gurdwara management

Khalsa College, Amritsar

In 1882 The first Punjab university, University of the Punjab, was founded at Lahore. In 1892 the Khalsa College was founded in Amritsar. In 1907 The Khalsa Diwan Society is established in Vancouver, Canada. In 1911 The first Gurdwara is established in London. In 1912 the First Gurdwara in United States was established in Stockton, California.[196]

Settlement outside Punjab

In the Late 1800s and Early 1900s Punjabi and Sikhs began to immigrate to East Africa, the Far East, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Contemporary Period (1914 – present)

A Sikh in World War II

Sikhs in the World Wars

In two world wars 83,005 Sikh soldiers were killed and 109,045 were wounded.[197]

At offset of World War I, Sikh military personnel numbered around 35,000 men of the 161,000 troops, which is around 22% of the British Armed Forces,[198] yet the Sikhs only made up less than 2% of the total population in India. Sikhs, before and after this were, and are, well known for their martial skills, freedom in speaking their minds, and their daredevil courage.[199]

Indian Sikh soldiers in Italian campaign.

Sikh soldier with captured Swastika flag

A company of 15th Sikhs at Le Sart, France 1915

A company of 15th Sikhs at Le Sart, France 1915

John George Smyth VC drawing

Early modern Sikh developments

In 1920 The Akali Party is established to free gurdwaras from corrupt masands (treasurers), and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SPGC) is founded.[200] In 1925 The Punjab Sikh Gurdwaras Act is passed, which transfers control of the Punjab's historic gurdwaras to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.[201]

Sikh struggles in British India

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

Main article: Jallianwala Bagh massacre

In 1919 the massacre of Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar during the festival of Vaisakhi when 15,000 to 20,000 peaceful protesters including women, children and the elderly where shot at under the orders of Reginald Dyer.[202]

Saka Panja Sahib

A non-violent agitation to assert the right to felling trees for Guru ka Langar from the land attached to Gurdwara Guru ka Bagh was underway. The first Sikh volunteers were arrested and tried for trespass,[203] but from 25 August police resorted to beating day after day the batches of Sikhs that came. eventually the beating stopped and the procedure of arrests resumed with jail time of about two and a half years and a fine of one hundred rupees each.

One such train left Amritsar on 29 October 1922 for the Attock Fort, which would touch Hasan Abdal the following morning. The Sikhs of Panja Sahib decided to serve a meal to the detenues but when they reached the railway station with the food they were informed by the station master that the train was not scheduled to halt there.[204]

Two of the Sikhs, Bhai Pratap Singh and Bhai Karam Singh who were leading the sangat went forward as the rumbling sound of the approaching train was heard and sat crosslegged in the middle of the track.[205] Several others, men and women, followed suit. The train run over eleven of the squatters[206] before stopping while the Sikhs pleaded to serve the arrested Sikhs before proceeding. The Sikhs served the Singhs in the train and then turned to the injured. The worst mauled were Bhai Pratap Singh and Bhai Karam Singh, who succumbed to their injuries the following day.

Jaito Da Morcha / Saka Gangsar Sahib

In 1924 A special Jatha of five hundred Akalis approaching Jaito, India is fired upon by police; two hundred were injured and one hundred attained martyrdom. but the freedom to hold Akhand Path at Jaito was obtained after one year and ten months.[207]

Sikh revolutionaries

Main article: Indian independence movement

Ghadar Party flag

Bhagat Singh

Sohan Singh Bhakna, Kartar Singh Sarabha, alongside many other Punjabi's founded the Ghadar party to overthrow British colonial authority in India by means of an armed revolution.[208] The Ghadar party is closely associated with the Babbar Akali Movement, a 1921 splinter group of "militant" Sikhs who broke away from the mainstream non-violent Akali movement.

In 1914 Baba Gurdit Singh led the Komagata Maru ship to the port of Vancouver with 346 Sikhs on board; forced to leave port on July 23.[209] Bela Singh Jain an informer and agent of Inspector William Hopkinson, pulled out two guns and started shooting at the Khalsa Diwan Society Gurdwara Sahib on West 2nd Avenue. He murdered Bhai Bhag Singh, President of the Society and Battan Singh and Bela Singh was charged with murder, but Hopkinson decided to appear as a witness in his case and made up much of his testimony at his trail and subsequently Bela Singh was acquitted. On October 21, 1914, Bhai Mewa Singh, Granthi of Khalsa Diwan Society shot William Hopkinson in the Assize court corridor with two revolvers because he believed him to be unscrupulous and corrupt, using informers to spy on Indian immigrants. Canadian policeman William Hopkinson shot and killed by Mewa Singh who is later sentenced to death.[210]

In 1926 Six Babar (literally, lion) revolutionary Akalis, are put to death by hanging.[211]

In 1931 Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev are convicted of murder of police inspector J. P. Saunders and executed;[212] Bhagat Singh is popularly known as Shaheedey Azam (supreme martyr)

In 1940 Udham Singh, an Indian revolutionary socialist, assassinated Michael O'Dwyer to avenge justice for the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre when 15,000 to 20,000 people including women, children were shot at after a peaceful protest in Amritsar[202]

Bhagat Puran Singh Pingalwara dedicated his life to the 'selfless service of humanity'.[213] He founded Pingalwara in 1947 with only a few patients, the neglected and rejected of the streets of Amritsar. An early advocate of what we today refer to as the 'Green Revolution', Bhagat Puran Singh was spreading awareness about environmental pollution, and increasing soil erosion long before such ideas became popular.[214]